Marriage Index
Van Deusen/Kosinski Collection


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PAGE 72

The CEREMONIAL LAW, or as it might more properly be denominated, the ECCLESIASTICAL, comprised all the statutes, which regulated the rites of religion and mode of worship in the Church, until the close of the dispensation of the Old Testament. Rites and modes peculiarly appropriated to the period of promise, and designed as so many instructive types and affecting figures, to exhibit the blessed Messiah, and portray what he was to perform and suffer to save his people from their sins. This was their primary and highest object, but to preserve the Jews from idolatry and keep the chosen tribes completely separate from every other nation, many particular and minute observations were enacted, which to us, who are ignorant of the customs of the ancient nations surrounding Israel, appear to be of minor importance. These may justly be called ceremonial, while the principal and typical parts were far from being mere ceremonies. - Whatever appertained strictly and exclusively to the ecclesiastical or ceremonial law in the books of Moses, must necessarily be limited to the Old Testament. It was peculiar to Israel. It could apply to no other people or period: and since grace and truth are come by Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law

PAGE 73

for righteousness, the shadows have vanished, the ritual worship is abrogated, and nothing typical is any longer of force.

What is denominated the CIVIL LAW of the Pentateuch, was adapted to Israel, and as placed under the honourable government of a Theocracy. It fixed their constitution, and directed in what way their government was to be administered. It prescribed the duties of magistrates and private citizens, and determined whatever related to their common intercourse. As such, it appertained solely to that people. It was the great partition wall, which, together with their ecclesiastical statutes, separated them from the neighboring states, and distinguished them from every other nation in the world.

It is evident that nothing in their system of laws, which was exclusively ecclesiastical or civil, can bind any other people. Yet the principles of equity, which are the basis of all well organized governments, and which pervade the civil system of the Jews, are equally obligatory upon the whole world; and especially the moral precepts, which we shall






        
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